Author: Brad Koerner

Creative Director and Product Manager
Lighting Education

brilliant: the evolution of artificial light

Brad Koerner

Brilliant: The Evolution of Artificial Light by Jane Brox, is absolutely…well, uh, I just can’t resist…must not type this pun….brilliant! I highly recommend reading this book to anyone…super-mega-lighting-dork or not.  Brilliant really goes beyond just lighting:  It looks at the evolution of human history as filtered by the powerful effect that man-made light has had on our civilizations.  The research that the author did is amazing; you will continually be blown away by the detailed historic tidbits sprinkled throughout.  It’s a terrific, fast -reading book…really fun. Continue reading brilliant: the evolution of artificial light

Business & Innovation

being a good product manager = listening, synthesis, advocacy

Brad Koerner

I propose that successful Product Management/Marketing employs three key functions: listening, synthesis, and advocacy. Listen.  Listen to your customers, your sales team, your management, popular culture, your heart.  Listen to industries outside your own; that is where the “cool stuff” usually appears from.  Organize.  Build an institutional memory system that everyone can openly access. Synthesize the tremendous volume of inputs.  Recognize the “white space” opportunities outside of existing product categories. Blend innovation risks.  Determine priorities (“focus” is the ability to NOT do the other 101 good ideas on the list).  Be willing to pause and think, to recognize incomplete information.  … Continue reading being a good product manager = listening, synthesis, advocacy

Creative Manufacturers

Acuity Responds: OLED is available 2012 Q1

Brad Koerner

For my small but loyal reader base, you know that I have comments turned off.  No evil plot here; I just got tired of all the spam, trackbacks and other silly comments I got.  I had very, very few “intelligent” comments. However, someone from Acuity saw my post about their OLED lights, and was nice enough to track me down and send this in: Hi Brad, Just saw your write up on Acuity OLED,  I ‘m on the OLED team at Acuity, and you can consider this product LAUNCHED! It can be specified now, and will be available for delivery … Continue reading Acuity Responds: OLED is available 2012 Q1

Future Lighting, Lighting Education

3+1: fundamental lighting categories

Brad Koerner

Above is a rendering I made to help explain a basic way to categorize light sources.  Lighting can be broken down into three fundamental geometric categories: point sources, linear sources, and planar sources.

Now, we don’t live in a conceptually perfect Euclidean world, and the perception of relative scale of course matters in how one defines a certain light source.  What is approximating a skinny “line” of light at a far distance resembles a rectangular plane of light at a near distance, so context is essential in these categorizations.

A direct result of this relative scale perception issue is that when points, lines and planes are aggregated together in clusters, they create visual textures across a meta surface.  Let’s call these the “3+1” fundamental geometries of lighting.

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Creative Manufacturers

lighting for the 1 in 4 humans with no electric lighting

Brad Koerner


While Howard Brandston makes a fool of himself demanding his “moral choice” to use 19th-century lighting technology, impoverished villagers in South America, India, and elsewhere are upgrading their entire standard of living by skipping from 17th-century oil lamps to 21st-century solar-LED systems.

Continue reading “lighting for the 1 in 4 humans with no electric lighting”

Lighting Education

OMG! LED lighting is killing American freedom!

Brad Koerner

It appalls me to see how many blowhard crankpots are hiding behind the tenants of “personal freedom” and “liberty” and trying to actually reverse the residential energy efficiency standards enacted in 2007.  I mean, come on…it was the one good thing Bush Jr. did for the environment!

The really twisted part is that history is sadly repeating itself.  Like clinging to their glory days of long-gone youth, some people just can’t let go of past technologies.  Did you know that people actually bemoaned the passing of gaslight in favor of electric light?

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Creative Manufacturers, Future Lighting, Lighting Technology

osram’s “airabesc” oled + led fixture

Brad Koerner

OSRAM launched a stylish combination OLED + LED pendant fixture called the “Airabesc” at the recent iSalone/Euroluce show.

OSRAM has been experimenting with OLED technology for well over a decade now (I personally saw back in 1999 an early OSRAM prototype OLED while at Harvard’s School of Design ).    Its nice to see OLEDs finally reaching the output levels needed for general illumination.  And the fixture is  definitely following the du jour architectural trends of biomimetic, swoopy styling enabled by digital design and fabrication.

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Creative Manufacturers, Lighting Technology

modular lighting: scotty

Brad Koerner

I’ve discussed previously how sci-fi movies of the past provide terrific guidance as to the future of lighting, but this might be taking that a bit too literally:  Modular Lighting has introduced “Scotty“, a recessed “downlight” version of their highly innovative “Spock” fixture (which I covered in this post).  I put “downlight” in quotes very purposefully:  This fixture is nothing like the downlight your grandfather used.

Continue reading “modular lighting: scotty”